1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to hybrid vehicles and, more particularly, to an environmentally sensitive hybrid vehicle in which an internal combustion engine drives one pair of wheels and an electric motor drives another pair of wheels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hybrid vehicles employing internal combustion engines and electric motors to drive the vehicle are well known in the art. Typically, in the past, hybrid vehicles have suffered from being underpowered or have produced unacceptable levels of potentially hazardous emissions during stop and go or intermittent operation such that advantages over single internal combustion engine vehicles have not been significant. Hybrid vehicles which have attempted to merge internal combustion engines and electric motors have also suffered from design deficiencies in the location of these components in the vehicle. Such previous design deficiencies have added to the impracticality of such vehicles.
Compressed natural gas (CNG) has long been admired as a fuel source because of its low cost, low emissions from combustion and relatively high octane values. While the use of CNG powered vehicles is also known in the art, use of CNG as a fuel source has typically been limited to larger vehicles, such as trucks, due in part to the relatively large size of the fuel tanks necessary to power these vehicles over an acceptable range. Still, the abundant resources of natural gas in the United States and the economic and governmental motives now extant to reduce the level of potentially hazardous emissions created from conventionally powered vehicles makes the use of hybrid vehicles using CNG powered internal combustion engines an important objective. Thus, there is a need in the art to provide a hybrid vehicle which effectively packages the necessary power components of the vehicle with acceptable ranges between fueling stops such that the vehicle is economically viable.